Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: Prop 8, tensions, and why we all need to calm down
Anyone remember Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”? I loved Samuel Jackson’s character Mister Senor Love Daddy. A dj from the old school, Senor Daddy was a Greek chorus, commenting on the scenes and making cogent arguments when people lost their minds.
This was never clearer when the movie’s characters look into the camera and start spitting out racial slurs. Mister Senor Daddy breaks the game up and tells everyone to take a time out.
Where is our Love Daddy? The Prop 8 debate shows we all need a time out, a breather, a little time to collect our thoughts. Accusations and counter accusations have been heated and have been based on silly assumptions.
Now I know how the game is played. Right now someone is about to type a response that will say stop making excuses for black homophobia. I’m not. Never have. What I have argued is that the defeat of Prop 8 is based on multiple factors and to reduce it only to race is to smooth out the edges on a rather complex problem.
Here are some numbers by the folk over at 538.com and they make the persuasive case that Prop 8’s demise was more generational than racial.
To repeat myself: these numbers give no one a pass but the only way there will be progress is when we stop turning dense issues into simplistic slogans and rhetoric. Making black Californians the sole reason why Prop 8 failed is a memo that needs to be dropped.
I agree, no one group is responsible for this injustice. Basically we need to come together as a community and be more visible to the straight world. We need to be seen holding hands, kissing, walking arm in arm. We need to educate straight people. Many of the religious groups think we will go right back into the closet. We have to stop being powerless and take the power back into our own hands.
Boo-fucking-hoo, diego, you pathetic Al Sharpton wannabe. You say you want racism to stop, yet it seems all you can ever think about is your race. That is a very nice paradox. You apparently have an irrational fear of all white people, gay or not. And you know what? Your umbrella stereotyping of all whites, or at the moment, all white gays, as being racist toward blacks is NO BETTER than gays who stereotype all blacks as being homophobic. That is what you in the radical black power movement will never understand, is how you become just as racist and prejudicial against whites as you think they are against you. Congratu-fucking-lations. I’m not going to attempt to further pursue this discussion with an irrational ideologue like you. Goodbye.
RadicalRealist,stop, just stop! You said
“NO WAY excuses the stupidity it takes to be a minority that understands discrimination and turn around and do the same thing to another group. That is inexcusably disgusting and stupid”
This is what Jenn and I and other gay people of colour on this site, yup…still here, are saying about gay white people and “blacks like you”.Unless you are saying that gays dont know what it is like to be discrminiated against, and thus cannot understand issues like self-hatred, misunderstandings, marginalizations or just plain ole stupidity based on religion? Then explain the hatred of whites on this board because it is not “justifiable” to be a racist…EVER!
Be outraged, we are too! Be pissed, we are too! Speak out, speak up and fight back…we will too! But do not threaten our grandmothers, do not call us and our families niggers, do not say that you will never support good candidates of colour because of race and def do not, do fucking not, explain away racist behaviour because you have been hurt. Do not deny what has been writen on this very site!
If you read the post, you would have seen the racism of which we speak. In your own words, it is “stupid” to be a minority—gay/white, and do the same, if not worse, to blacks/latinos. But is is also counter productive and beyond hurtful to those gays of colour that fought hard for rights for ALL minorities. It is disrespectful to those of us in mixed relationships. It is high ignorance from a group speaking from a point of superiority, like white gays. Who says that racism is justified? Remember that the other side says the same thing about homophobia.
But as for you, Radicalrealist, you are just as bad, I think worse, than every straight person who says that homophobia doesnt exist because you know better and you know the truth. Racism..and yes, homophobia is alive and well in every ethic group (whites too!) and minority. Gay whites have told us so many times over. If you..and only you, have been so fortunate as to have never experienced it…I SAY YOU ARE A LUCKY DUCK! But do not say I am wrong for not being as fortunate and lucky as you. My life is not filled with perfection like yours. I live in a world of true reality and it is not always racist free like yours.
You only justify the unjustifiable. And we have had your kind set us back for centuries, and have had enough! The same person that wants homophobia to be acknowledged now claims that RACISM OF ALL THINGS doesnt exist?
Why would being with another of your same sex keep you from being a racist? Being a person of colour doesnt keep you from being homophobic OR RACIST for that matter. This is not hard to understand. HURT PEOPLE, HURT PEOPLE, but that doesnt make it right..just pathetic!
And so the infighting continues. When we as a group can’t stop fighting against each other, how the heck can we fight the majority? Stop casting blame. It’s everyone’s fault. We didn’t touch the public the way we should, and could, have. We didn’t change minds or more importantly, hearts. We sat back and spouted stuff that had nothing to do with same-sex marriage. The opposition hit upon the fears that so many have.
Take the anger and channel it into the right path, folks. Fear is always going to exist and it is the path that we have to take, to lessen that fear. Education is the way to do it and the time to start that education is now, while everyone is still fired up with enthusiasm. That enthusiasm is going to die down, mark my words. Use it now, channel it now, into education to lessen the fear that did us in. Otherwise, we’re never going to win.
TheRadicalRealist
I truly understand that people on this site is upset. But, when is it time to say enough is enough. I know all too often that some African Americans can be homophobic. However, as women of minority we both know why that is. So, let’s just leave that at that.
Jenn from Philly,
I did read the comments, thanks.
No diego is not right.
The LGBT community is justifiably upset that a minority that has experienced de jure discrimination in the past was so willing to take away the civil rights of others, by a 7 in 10 margin. That is a fact, and it is a fact that blacks disproportionately supported prop 8 compared to any other minority. The No on 8 campaign had its problems, but that IN NO WAY excuses the stupidity it takes to be a minority that understands discrimination and turn around and do the same thing to another group. That is inexcusably disgusting and stupid. That goes for any person who voted for prop 8, but the LGBT people on this site were just expressing anger over the facts. That does not make them racist. The whole thing cannot be blamed on blacks, but you cannot excuse their disproportionate idiocy and the role it played in helping prop 8 pass.
I just want to clarify that I’m not “blaming” the African American community in California for the passing of Prop8. We all need to take ownership. All of this blaming really does have to stop, its not going to get us anywhere. We are all angry, and I think we can agree on that. I’m so happy that there are all of these PEACEFUL protests going on, but I worry that they will get violent, racist, and vindictive if things keep up.
I know people are tired of being “nice”, but we must be civil. It’s so cliche, but you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. We should be loud, but also constructive, organized, and most importantly, peaceful.
Please no more race blaming, we should know better…and its hypocritical
Mike in Detroit: The thing that made the California vote different is that gays already had been given marriage rights and they were now being taken away. In none of the flyover states was that the case.
That does not diminish the pain caused in the states that have amended their constitutions to ban marriage equality, but the situtaions are certainly different.
There was also the expectation that were Prop 8 to fail, this would be the thing that broke the back of the far right. It still might be after the state Supreme Court has had a look at the three suits that have been filed.
diego,
1. You said, “We, gays of colour, now know who they are and their words are in print. We know what they think about us and it is not very good.”
Apparently you do not know how to properly speak for yourself. Using the article “I” and not “We” is a good start.
2. You said, “DONT YOU DARE QUESTION ME!”
I will do whatever I damn well please.
3. You said, “You are just one of those self hating ‘blacks’ that believe that all whites are your friends.”
No, you are one of those self hating ‘gay’ Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton followers. You search out any little thing that you can claim as proof that all white people are evil to you all the time. Here’s some news for you: You are being just as racist towards whites as you perceive them to be towards you.
4. You said, “Being silent while whites want to burn your churcehs down?”
I don’t go to church. Just because I am black does not mean I am attached to some goddamn church. By the way, I highly doubt any black churches have been burned down by gay white folks, especially not recently. If you know of any in recent history, please provide credible sources.
5. You said, “I am sure gay white men love doing these things to you because you come back for more and say thank you.”
I am not a man, so gay men do nothing to me. Does your assumption that I’m a man make you sexist? If I were a politically correct pansy like you, perhaps it would.
You need to leave the Jesse Jackson fan club and take down your Black Panther Party poster and get help.
RadicalRealist – stop being a bitch! Maybe you should take the time to read the rest of the comments on this blog before you start commenting on other peoples post. Diego is right and you know it. So stop justifying what’s going on with this website.
P.S. If the LGBTQ community is so sensitive to African Americans then why are they so willing to blame us for something that they fucked up on in the first place? Let me be the first to say that the gay community did a half ass job. So don’t blame it on us.
Radicalrealist, I was speaking for myself. And please stop being a bitch and name caling. I have lived all over this country and have experienced many bad things from the gay community. I am an actist, lawyer and civil rights leader with over 20 years of my life in the gay and lesbian trenches. DONT YOU DARE QUESTION ME!
You are just one of those self hating ‘blacks’ that believe that all whites are your friends. You are either blind, stupid or both! the post on this board alone should tell you the truth.
No, gay whites havent voted against communities of colour because THEY DO IT AS WHITES, YOU IDIOT! Black like you make me want to join the kkk! self loathing do nothing, kiss ass. Being silent while whites want to burn your churcehs down? I am sure gay white men love doing these things to you because you come back for more and say thank you.
I will not reply to you anymore because my issue is with them. I will deal with you and your kind later…trust and believe!
What I just said goes for “Jenn from Philly” too.
I have no idea what gay people you know, but I have NEVER seen a minority group as sensitive towards other minority groups than the LGBT community.
diego,
SPEAK FOR YOURSELF. I am a gay of color and I DO NOT find my fellow LGBT people to be racist.
You are most likely an overly sensitive “political-correctness” pansy. The LGBT community has been and always will be more accepting of me for who I am than either of my racial groups of color will be.
May I remind you, never have 70% of LGBT people cast ballots in favor of taking away ANYONE’S civil rights.
Diego is right. Everyone seems to be showing there true colors and it ain’t pretty. I have never known how racist we are as people. I don’t think that anybody should be placing the blame on no one group of people.
As an African American, reading these comments makes me boil with anger inside. You all took a hand in helping me realize how much I’m still a second class citizen. I’m not just a second class citizen in America but I’m a second class citizen in the gay community. I know that I’m going to receive criticism about this but so what. You all need to seriously take a long look at yourselves.
I totally agree! Our community has been way too nice for way too long. Marriage is just one issue. We still have so many people that introduce their partners as “roommates.” We still have people that can’t even say the word GAY in public. If we don’t want to be treated as second class then we have to refuse the back seat!